Grmec

In late 1941, Tito’s partisans began to liberate previously occupied territories in present-day northwestern Bosnia which then belonged to the independent state of Croatia (NDH). A puppetstate to both Germany and Italy. The partisans set up bases in hard-to-reach areas difficult or impossible for the Germans to reach and detect. Beside bases, field hospitals were also built where wounded partisans were brought for medical care. Several field hospitals were set up in a mountainous area called Grmec and the largest of them was located on the northern slopes of a mountain called Korcanica. Construction began in February 1942 and it was called Bosanska Krajina and is said to have been the largest field hospital set up at the time. However, when the Axis powers began operation White in January 1943 with the aim to recapture areas controlled by the partisans, the hospital was in the direction of attack by the Germans. The partisans felt compelled to evacuate the field hospital and when the Germans arrived at the site all the wounded, all the equipment and personnel had been evacuated and all the buildings had been destroyed, or at least put into unusable condition. During the field hospital’s existence between January 1942 and February 1943, about 2,800 partisans were treated at the hospital.